Where are we in our healing?

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, "Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel."

He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy." When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me."

But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel." So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha's house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean." But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash, and be clean'?" So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

2 Kings 5:1-14

Father Damian and Mother Maryanne *

1980?

Star of the Sea Painted Church

Stained Glass

Kalaupapa, Moloka'i

Hawaii

United States

http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=2013070388195800&code=ACT&RC=54224&Row=8

Instructions for living a life:

Pay attention.  Be astonished.

Tell about it.

~ Mary Oliver

Healing takes courage,

and we all have courage,

even if we have to dig a little to find it.

~ Tori Amos

Beatriz (Bia) Monteiro (second from the left), our Exchange Student from Brazil, had a Going Away Party given by the Gordons, her most recent host family.

Natalie Gordon, on the right, has just returned from the Czech Republic, where she was an Outgoing Exchange Student.  The red-headed young man next to her is her Czech "brother" and came back with her for a visit.

(Look at that wonderful old VW camper in the background.  I had to go check it out.  All the young people were astonished that I used to actually own one of the original ones!)

Bia with her host mother, Mrs. Gordon.

At Wednesday Breakfast, 6-year-old Bryce showed us his okapi 

stuffed friend (in the foreground) and proudly read his report for us.

Jane Stewart, Tina Nelson, Van Farnsworth, and I had a delightful time

together at the Country Road Cafe in Kittredge.

The next day, Van dropped by to lend me a book and for me to see the wonderful elk her daughters

bought at the Silver Arrow and had given them for their 50th wedding anniversary.

"Samson" is a Spirit Horse

created by Robyn Hanna, an Evergreen artist.

The detail is amazing and unique.

http://myevergreenbiz.blogspot.com/2010/11/spirit-horse-robyn-hanna-winterfest-art.html

Nancy Eldridge, our yoga (once a week for me) instructor,

demonstrated the dance she recently

performed at the Miss Colorado Senior Contest.

She didn't win, but she had an exciting time!

Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling 

what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin.

It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy 

for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.

~ Frederick Buechner

July 7, 2013 Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Previous OPQs may be found at:

http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

*  "Kalaupapa's reputation as a leprosy colony is well-known. Hansen's disease, the proper term for leprosy, is believed to have spread to Hawaii from China. The first documented case of leprosy occurred in 1848. Its rapid spread and unknown cure precipitated the urgent need for complete and total isolation.

Surrounded on three sides by the Pacific ocean and cut off from the rest of Molokai by 1600-foot (488m) sea cliffs, Kalaupapa provided the environment. In early 1866, the first leprosy victims were shipped to Kalaupapa and existed for 7 years before Father Damien arrived. The area was void of all amenities. No buildings, shelters nor potable water were available.

These first arrivals dwelled in rock enclosures, caves, and in the most rudimentary shacks, built of sticks and dried leaves. Folklore and oral histories recall some of the horrors: the leprosy victims, arriving by ship, were sometimes told to jump overboard and swim for their lives. Occasionally a strong rope was run from the anchored ship to the shore, and they pulled themselves painfully through the high, salty waves, with legs and feet dangling below like bait on a fishing line.The ship's crew would then throw into the water whatever supplies had been sent, relying on currents to carry them ashore or the exiles swimming to retrieve them.

In 1873, Father Damien deVeuster, aged 33, arrived at Kalaupapa. A Catholic missionary priest from Belgium, he served the leprosy patients at Kalaupapa until his death. A most dedicated and driven man, Father Damien did more than simply administer the faith: he built homes, churches and coffins; arranged for medical services and funding from Honolulu, and became a parent to his diseased wards.

Damien contracted the disease, and after 16 years of selfless service, died in 1889... Mother Marianne, another revered servant, devoted 29 years on the peninsula as an administrator, nurse and educator. She spent her life on the go, even as her age climbed well into the seventies. She died in 1918.

In 1977, Pope Paul VI declared Father Damien to be venerable, the first of three steps that lead to sainthood. Pope John Paul II declared Damien blessed in 1995, the second step before canonization as a saint.

With the advent of sulfone drugs in the 1940s, the disease was put in remission and the sufferers are no longer contagious. The fewer than 100 former patients remaining on the peninsula are free to travel or relocate elsewhere, but most have chosen to remain where they have lived for so long." -- [http://visitmolokai.com/kala.html]

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.'

"Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=27852

2 Kings 5:1–14 with 

Psalm 30 

or

Isaiah 66:10–14 with

Psalm 66:1–9

Galatians 6:[1–6] 7–16 

Luke 10:1–11, 16–20